Heartfelt Cards
by Mein Liebling
Summary: Souta gave Kagome her own personalized deck of Duel Monsters cards, and Kagome decides to use them as her last link to her friends of the past- with some help from Yugi and the gang and her old school friends. [For Javy.]


She was silent as she sat on her childhood pink bed and held the bittersweet card deck that Souta had given her that morning- her birthday. Her fingers were long and callused, the finely trained muscles moving quickly as she shuffled and reshuffled her deck. Her black hair that was cut sloppily short earlier that day hung uneven in her face, and she constantly moved one hand upwards to push it out of her dull eyes.

She- Kagome Higurashi, Shikon no Tama Miko and currently broken hearted teenager- hesitantly picked up the first card lying on the top of the deck and her throat tightened unbearably.

It was a Spell Card- named "The Kitsune's Curse"- and had the image of a small orange boy in mid air, laughing as he threw a blue ball of energy at an unseen foe. It tricked the foe into thinking that player had taken control of one of their Duel Monsters (while in reality it remained still on the playing field, a brilliant illusion) and therefore the foe would end up destroying their own monster whilst still having it in their deck. A useful card.

Kagome let out a shaky sigh as she set down the card and stared at the little boy that looked so much like her little one. Souta must of gotten ahold of some of her drawings and sent them in to have the deck made just for her- and she appreciated the sentiment almost as much as she loathed the reminder of all she had lost.

The Miko ran her finger over the classic design on the back of the card before picking up the next in her deck.

Kouga stared right at her with a cheeky and flirty wink. He was a powerful attack monster that specialized in fast attacks, no matter if it was a magical or physical attack. It caused great damage to their enemies, but a good hit would have him permanently out of that game unless she revived him from the graveyard, which took quite a few lifepoints from her. All in all he had a terrible defense, but from what she remembered of a few instances that he tried to "save" her, it wasn't far off the mark.

She set him down next to Shippo and grabbed the next card, before immediately placing it back down. Tears sprung into her eyes and she rapidly tried to wipe them away. No, she was not ready for that.

Kagome set down the card deck on the floor and buried herself in her bed, startling Buyo who glared at her halfheartedly before curling up next to the girl. No, not yet. Soon, but not so near to the anniversary.

Inuyasha's card remained face down, in defense mode.

* * *

><p>"Oi, Yug! Wanna get some burgers after school?"<p>

Yugi Mutou lifted his head up just enough to stare at his friend, before grinning brightly and nodding. "Uh! Sure! Gramps won't mind, I don't think."

Jounouchi flashed him a thumbs up with a giant smile ,before slouching down in the seat next to him. "So, Yugs, how ya doin'?"

"Good! I've nearly finished my deck- Gramps gave me a couple more cards, and now I'm almost to my goal!"

"Hehehe, that's great!" Jou cheered. "I'm pretty far on mine too- ya know, with Red Eyes and all I'm a shoe in to win all my games! Unless they're against you, bud, in which I don't stand a chance."

Yugi shook his head. "Not true! You almost had me last time with that Spell and Trap combo!"

They talked animatedly about whether or not Jou was going to beat Yugi some day (Jou disagreed whilst Yugi fought adimately that yes, with the way he was rapidly improving, that day would come soon) until the teacher entered the classroom and told all the students to sit down and get out their notebooks.

Yugi fiddled with his Dark Magician card he always kept in his pocket before sighing and listening to his teacher. He needed a good duel.

* * *

><p>Kagome had a large, genuine smile on her face as Yuka, Ayumi, and Eri dragged her around the small town they had spontaneously decided to visit that day. It wasn't a particular special town (other than the fact that many of the Duel Monsters' champions resided there, which was one of the biggest hits Kagome had missed while she was in the past, and that Kaiba Corp's main building was there, but that was less important) but it had good food and enough shopping to keep the four of them entertained.<p>

After spending the whole afternoon flittering around the main shopping center ("Oh my god this is so cute," Ayumi squealed as she held up the dress. "And it's- _8,139 Yen!?" _she held the dress away from her and stared at it sadly. "That's my entire paycheck! Oh darn it!") before they sat down to eat at one of the cheap burger places for a snack.

"So, Kags!" Eri leaned forward and stared at the black haired girl, who was sipping on her drink. "What do you think about Duel Monsters?"

"Duel Monsters?" Kagome repeated. "I didn't think you were interested in it, Eri."

"Oh, I'm not." she waved it away. "But have you seen some of the people who do? Goddamn."

Yuka snorted, before trying to cover it with a cough. "Eri's just interested in that, but I'm personally interested in it. Do you like it Kagome? I mean, I know you're far behind thanks to your fatal illnesses-"

The Miko cringed at the reminder of whatever story her grandfather had given her friends.

"-But surely you've heard about Duel Monsters."

Kagome nodded her head and grabbed one of the fries from Ayumi's plate, much to the other girl's displeasure. "Uh-huh, I've heard about it. Souta's all over it, he, uhm, explained it all to me." she paused for a few moments before reaching in her pocket and pulling out her deck, which she had tied with a ribbon to keep it from falling apart. "Souta got me a handmade set."

The girls gasped and leaned forward as Yuka held up some of the cards, reading out loud the names. "'Inu Warrior', 'Killing Perfection', 'The Kitsune's Curse'... Wow, Kags, these are really, really powerful cards!" The group's enthusiast complimented as she flicked through Kagome's deck. "Really, they're _amazing. _And to have a entire deck that's not only playable but one of a kind, this must have cost a fortune to be made!"

"Really?" Kagome couldn't fathom why Souta would spend so much money on her, she would definitely talk to him- and _maybe_ buy him that new video game he had been talking about for months to pay him back.

The door to the burger place flew open and loud laughter floated through towards them. Kagome watched the group of teens- their hair must obviously be dyed since half of them had the most _unnatural _hair colours (although who was she to talk about? Inuyasha and Sesshomaru had silver hair.)- before turning back to Yuka and Ayumi, who were oohing over her cards, and laughed as Eri stole the rest of Ayumi's french fries, much to Ayumi's horror as she made their short haired friend go up and buy her another thing of fries.

"So Yug!" Man, those highschool kids (she was assuming) were loud. "When are ya gonna beat Kaiba in another duel? I've been itching to see 'im knocked down a few! Preferably by me, but you always beat him so it's much more fun to watch."

"Duel?" Yuka tilted her head. "They must like Duel Monsters as well."

"Well it is the most popular thing around," Ayumi pointed out.

"Jou, you can beat him now, I'm sure of it!"

The loud blond kid, Jou, laughed and scratched the back of his head. "I bet I could! But not when he has three Blue Eyes. Red Eyes can only take so much you know?"

The brown haired kid with an almost-mohawk shoved Jou. "What is this? The great Katsuya Jounouchi admitting that _Seto Kaiba _can defeat him?"

"I can beat that bastard with my hands tied behind my back!" Jou barked. "Just not while he still plays that old Blue Eyes trick."

Yuka seemed absolutely absorbed in eavesdropping on the teens' conversation. "Blue Eyes? Blue Eyes White Dragon? It's rumoured that Seto Kaiba has a few, the number however is unknown..."

Kagome took back her cards and shuffled them in her hand, pulling out Shippo's card and staring at it for a little while before placing it back and pulling up Miroku's. Ah. Souta had managed to even get the maker's to perfect that perverted look. She was amazed at the quality.

Eri rolled her eyes as she set down the fries and scooted down next to Kagome. "You just love the gossip, Yuka." she accused.

"And you don't?" the incoming university student shot back.

Eri shrugged. "Takes one to know one."

Kagome picked at the corner of one of the cards- 'Killing Perfection' read the bold lettering, and she thought that it was absolutely perfect for Sesshomaru given how well they matched his personality (maybe she had told Souta one too many stories behind Mama's back)- and let her eyes scan over the words she had memorized after nights of reading them over and over.

"Oi, are those Duel Monster cards?"

The four of their group looked up to see the blond guy- Jounouchi, Kagome remembered- looking at her curiously as he stared at her cards. The rest of his group came over as well, although the only girl in the group immediately apologized and hit Jou for bugging them.

"No, no, it's alright. And yeah, these are Duel Monsters cards. I haven't gotten around to playing with them, however, so if you're looking for a duel I'm no match." Kagome tried to wave him off.

"Hey, that's no problem! Next time we see each other, we'll have ta duel each other though! Agreed?" Jou smiled at her.

Kagome grinned. "Agreed."

"What kind of deck is that? I've never seen that card before." Yugi leaned forward and looked at her top card that she had face up- Shippo's card.

"It's... my Inu Deck. All cards are one of a kind."

The entire group's eyes widened. "One of a kind? Wow, I bet even the Kaiba bastard doesn't have an entire one of a kind deck!" Jou blinked.

Kagome continued to grin, but it turned slightly sheepish. "Yeah..."

"Jou, don't be rude!" the girl once again smacked Jou's arm. "I'm Anzu, nice to meet you."

"Kagome, likewise."

The rest of them introduced themselves- Yuka was absolutely astounded to learn that the kids were some of the most well known duelers _in the country _and immediately asked to see their decks, which the boys happily did- and ended up pulling up chairs and sitting with the girls.

Kagome leaned back against the sticky red seat and smiled at Yugi who was curiously staring at her, before letting out a sigh as she picked up Inuyasha's card and stared at it.

_Inu Warrior._

High level of attack and defense points. Caused great damage. Wielded a sword that was able to slice through all enemies below his level, no matter what defense they had.

She pressed a hand over her mouth and let out a shaky breath.

It was a tribute to her past and she wasn't going to forget it.

"So, Yugi, could you tell me some of the rules to dueling?"

He looked absolutely delighted.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Dedicated with plotbunny by my amazing friend Javy, aka J.F.C.<strong>_

_**It didn't turn out quite as I would have liked but I got most of the points I wanted and that's good enough for me. I will edit it later however.**_

_**Unbeta'd for now.**_

_**I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh! or Inuyasha.**_


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